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Troubled youth facility on horizon
February 20, 2008
By Basia Pioro
basia@cfp.ky
A new facility for troubled youth
that has been in the works for years is now close to becoming
reality.
Department of Children and Family
Services Director Deanna Look Loy met with Public Works officials
last week to discuss plans for the new facility.
The secure remand facility, planned
to accommodate up to 18 girls and boys, will also include a separate
residential drug rehabilitation wing.
“This is something we have been
trying to get off the ground for a very long time and we are finally
at the stage where it is set to go ahead,” said Health and Family
Services Minister Anthony Eden.
He said $1million has been set
aside for the project, with further funds to be allocated in May’s
08–09 budget.
The urgent need for the facility
was recently underscored after a girl, a ward of the court, was sent
to Tranquility Bay in Jamaica in January. She joins another
Caymanian girl already there.
The Government has been using the
Jamaican institution as a last resort secure remand facility in
cases where Grand Cayman’s on–Island juvenile facilities, the
Frances Bodden home for girls and the Bonaventure home and Eagle
House for boys, have proved incapable of handling difficult cases.
The choice of Jamaica is not
arbitrary. Children with criminal records will not be granted US
visas to attend similar institutions there. If Tranquility Bay were
to close down, the Cayman Islands will find itself in a particularly
difficult situation.
The threat of closure is not idle.
The Jamaican facility has been under intense scrutiny for years by
organisations like Nospank.net and the Coalition Against
Institutionalized Child Abuse for its harsh treatment of the minors
sent there.
The facility, located in a remote
location in Treasure Beach near St. Elizabeth, west of Kingston, is
owned and operated by the World Wide Association of Specialty
Programs and Schools. The 19–year old organisation holds
approximately 2,400 children ranging from seven to 18 in facilities
in the United States, Jamaica, and Mexico.
Despite the criticisms, Cayman
Islands government officials say they are not concerned with the
facility now that it has reportedly scaled back its most
controversial disciplining techniques, which include forcing
students to lie face down on the floor for days and weeks on end as
a form of punishment.
“Right now, we are satisfied that
students are not being mistreated,” says Mr. Eden.
But while Tranquility Bay’s
teaching methods are intended to reprogramme children to have better
relationships with their families, but Mrs. Look Loy has told the
Compass she feels that particular outcome is not apparent.
“We would really like to get a
facility built in Cayman, as it is very difficult to work with the
children if they are not home, as children who are experiencing
problems need to have their families involved,” she says.
“Unfortunately, we have had to send
children overseas over the years because when these children exhaust
all the resources that we have, we have no choice but to seek the
kind of therapy and services they need outside the Island,” she
said.
Specifically, Cayman does not have
the capacity to house children who continually abscond.
“The situation is not ideal but
there is no other option at the present time,” says Mrs. Look Loy.
The mother and aunt of the latest
girl to be sent to Tranquility Bay have been meeting with Children
and Family services, and Mrs. Look–Loy says that while the situation
is unfortunate, it was not unanticipated.
“We would really have preferred to
have dealt with this situation here on Island so that she could
undergo therapy here close to her family, but with a child that
continually absconds there is no option here at present.”
Mrs. Look Loy says she is
particularly pleased the proposed facility will include a
residential drug rehab wing. At present, the Department of
Counselling can only offer an outpatient programme to youth with
drug problems.
“These children need more than
that,” says Mrs. Look Loy.
“It’s difficult to treat other
issues like delinquency and family problems if the kids are using
drugs. Drugs problems need to be dealt with first of all,” she says.
While the new facility will house
both children in remand and children in the drug treatment
programme, they will be housed in different parts of the building.
The Minister says two potential
locations, one in North Side and one in East End, are being
discussed and the drawings are with the Public Works Department.
He says the East End site looks
promising as it is on a few hundred acres being used by Northward
prison.
“It’s definitely not a final
decision, but it seems that it will be a suitable site, with enough
room for the facility to be constructed they way we want.”
He says that overall, the increased
push to get the facility built is part of a comprehensive initiative
emanating from a recent study investigating the factors underlying
criminality in Cayman.
“We are in the process of pulling
together a high level council comprised of representatives of the
attorney general, the chief secretary, our ministry, social services
and the judiciary among others to incorporate people who deal both
directly and indirectly with young offenders to deal with these and
related issues,” he said.
Mrs. Look Loy said the Department
of Children and Family Services is trying to focus on early
intervention.
“What we are trying to achieve with
these programmes is making these children functional citizens,” she
says.
“You have to ask yourself, why, for
example, are they absconding when we send them to a home? It’s
likely that they are coming from a highly unstructured environment
and that the structure of a place like Frances Bodden comes as a
shock.”
She says the government can’t be
blamed when the situation calls for a child to be sent to a more
secure remand facility.
“When discussing the most recent
situation, we see the girl was a ward of the courts. How many things
had to happen before this situation came about, and where were the
parents in this?”
“When it comes to dealing with
problem children, the parents have to be involved, they have to take
responsibility,” she says.
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